Features, settings & updates

[RDevice079]

I've added movies & tv shows to My Feeds and it will say a particular title is "Now available for free" when I go to the details,  only pay options appear.  It also errors the other way too, saying a title is available with a subscription,  then the details page shows it's available for free. 

Bottom line is the information is inaccurate and very frustrating. 

I've tried removing/readding titles and even a system update to no avail. 

[makaiguy · Accepted solution]

Recognize that the data used in My Feed is supplied by the channels themselves.   The My Feed results are at the mercy of the accuracy of the data supplied to it.

[RokuMary-F]

Hi @RDevice079,

Welcome to the Roku Community!

Thanks for reaching out to the Roku community. 

What channel are you trying to load this content from? Could you provide an example movie title or TV shows that you experience this issue with?

We look forward to hearing from you and assisting you with your needs. Thank you!

Best regards,
Mary

[RDevice079]

A few examples in My Feeds:

 No Country for Old Men says Now available for free (then r-arrow to next page) only rental or subscription required options appear. 

 Get Shorty says Now available for free, then next page shows only rental options.

 American Beauty says  Now available for free, next page shows required subscription or rental options 

 John Wick says Now available for free, next page shows only rental options 

 Amelie from Montmarte says Now available for free,  next page shows only Requires subscription option 

 Crank says Now available for free,  next page only shows rental option 

This happens often making the My Feeds feature unreliable and frustrating.  My Feeds would be great if it actually worked properly. One of the main reasons I chose Roku over other streaming choices was because of Roku's reputation of the search algorithm not always directing a viewer to results that requires further purchases.  I even bought 3 more Roku Express 4k+ devices for family members as gifts after having mine for a while. Now, being the family cheerleader for Roku, I get calls from them when issues come up.

One day I'd like to get the Soundbar Pro and hope it doesn't add problems to my existing device.

[kominetz]

I added "PBS News Hour" to My Feed, and I got a notification when a new episode was available, but when I go into my feed it references an old episode (S47/E253) that is "not available on Roku yet". The current episode shows up correctly in the PBS Channel and I can watch it there.

Observations: The PBS Channel doesn't seem to use the same season/episode notation. This happens on other TV series' feeds that have a long back catalog of episodes.

I don't get any kind of options like "Mark as Read" which is common with RSS feed readers or "Only New Episodes" in Xfinity's reminders feature.

How do I get Roku's My Feed to only list new episodes?

[kominetz]

I think the problems may have different root causes. I think with my series content problem, there's some kind of "oldest not viewed". When I subscribed to a new program, it worked correctly. When I subscribe to an existing program, the oldest not viewed can be months or years in the past, and it may not be available on any Roku source. So, stuck with a "clear queue" or "mark all read" feature.

I wonder in your case if there's something about formats, like maybe standard def became available for free but your settings only show you HD or 4K content. Can you fish around and see if there are different formats (heck, even different language versions) that might account for it?

[kominetz]

It seems more like a "last read" problem, not a feed content problem. I also think that a program showing up in the feeds of multiple channels is a part of the problem, especially if the other feeds list much-older content.

Two things (in combination) might help: A "mark all as read" feature and the ability to specify "only use this channel". My wild guess is that this is all RSS and/or ATOM underneath, and there are known solutions to these kinds of problems, but they require greater control over the feed by the user.

[kominetz]

Hi, Mary.

My problem is a little bit different, but here's a description of one specific case:

https://community.roku.com/t5/Roku-Device-Features-Settings-Updates/My-Feed-data-is-inaccurate/m-p/7...

[Hope16]

Roku won't let me "Follow on Roku" for some TV shows that I watch. I get to "follow on Roku" and press "OK," but it does nothing. It works on other shows, though. I make sure to search for the shows I want and get to the follow part, but nothing happens when I click it. Anyone know why?

[ReRun]

"Dodge City" with Errol Flynn is now in My Feed as "Now available for free".  Yet there are just 4 rental listings; Prime Video, Vudu, Roku-Vudo Store and Apple TV all at $2.99.

Another inaccurate instance is on Roku now.  It shows "Funny Farm" with Chevy Chase, but upon selection and still showing the "Funny Farm" movie poster, the description and actual video is a completely different movie. The movie starts right in with some credits and I don't even see the title.  Ok, as I listened it sounds like this movie too could be called the "Funny Farm", so it's the movie poster which is inaccurate.